Heads and Trials
by perFANfection
Summary: Chloe's desperate to get out of her marriage of ultimatums, no matter the risks. Beca is desperate to get some quick money after dropping out of college to only fail at being a DJ. So when she answers an ad that leads her to be a surrogate, she jumps into a deal that's more than she bargains for. Truly a real life game of "heads or tails"


Chloe Beale was an optimist, and saw the world through a lense most people would and could not. For most people, the glass lenses would shatter and so would their hope, unable to see anything beyond the broken glass. For Chloe, she saw it as either a chance to repair the broken, or start fresh, and she never lost sight of her goals and learning experiences to get her there. She would continue on, and believed that leaping into what she couldn't see per say, was a walk of faith. She loved taking her chances and if she knew there was no hope, loved walking new paths with a fresh view.

Beca Mitchell on the other hand, saw it as a bummer, and when the glass broke, she tossed her dreams aside and lost all sight of what was still good in her life. She had a hard time trying to navigate through all the broken pieces of her life and felt that she was beyond repair.

She needed someone to show her that just because the pieces were broken it didn't mean she was and someone to help her put them back into place. It may not look the same, but she could learn to see things from a new perspective. And Chloe Beale was just who she needed help, one uncomfortable nudge of fate and many unexpected twists and turns at a time. And likewise, even the most optimistic of people need the same.

***Chloe's Story***

"Chloe, for the love of all that's good, put down your phone!"

Her exasperated husband, Jarred, rolled his eyes lightheartedly as Chloe's face dropped, feeling the sting of his dismissive tone that only lead her to believe that not only her body was giving up on her, but so was he.

His words struck with undoubtedly sharp precision, sounding tired and annoyed and frustrated, tired of the same old-same old bad news that they had been hearing for years. Or maybe, he was just sick of disappointment of Chloe.

"_The birth mother has chosen to relinquish the adoption process."_

"_The biological family has decided to withdraw."_

"_The adoption was not a match."_

Those familiar phrases bounced around her head, each and every time they filed the paperwork for a new family, and time and time again they were disappointed to know they had not been chosen, or the mother decided to withdraw and so on and so forth. She had felt like it was a gamble to try over and over again, a gamble of her time and emotions just to go through more heartache. And Jarred, never seemed bothered by it, like he was only in this to please Chloe. That he loved her, but was not "In love" with her anymore, just the idea of her. She was beginning to wonder if he ever truly did, even for a second, or if she was a pawn in his evil game.

She was only his arm candy, someone to fetch him and his fellow professor colleagues a drink while he had them over to discuss their work, or to appease his parents into writing him into the the will as the sole shareholder of their estates. She felt like she was his answer to their catch; The one where he needed to marry and to give his parents two ginger colored, biological grandchildren (or adopt two) to keep the family name, and his younger brother already had that.

She was beginning to believe that the once truly good guy she thought was in him was never actually there, and she was just a pawn for his money hungry, green lust, greedy game.

"_Would you shut up about the adoption already? Just, please! Let me finish writing my book already! Do you want me to succeed, or are you holding me back?" _

Chloe learned quickly to ignore his temper because she believed she let him down by telling him she was barren. He chose to marry her despite that but he never let her live it down, and now she was trapped in an angry, hate filled marriage only being held together by a measly thread of truly selfish motives.

Money was on the line and every time she suggested that maybe they were best off without each other, that she couldn't make him happy with what he truly wanted (she pretended it was children but they both knew what he was truly after) that he would become angry and remind her of her fault in the matter.

"_Maybe if your spider webbed, barren womb could give us a child, I could have the money one day and retired somewhere nice. But for now you'll have to suck it up and figure something out, because as soon as we have our children, the less time I have to spend with you."_

"_Have you thought of how selfish this is? Your plan has holes!" Chloe mistakenly raised her voice. _

_His eyes glowed with sharp, ember colored flames in the pupils that dilated to the size of saucers and his breathing quickened, all before reflexively grabbing Chloe's arms and pinning her against the walls, nearly knocking the frames _

"_Seriously! You're so worried about your parents dumb will! You don't even want children! You never did, you only want money!" Her shrill voice screamed over tears._

_His breathing slowed and his scowl dropped, but his glare didn't shift away from staring Chloe directly in the eyes. _

"_I don't know why I keep you around! You do me no good by not giving me biological children! You're ungrateful, lousy at housework, and you whine! A lot! I guess someone needs to take pity since you're too weak to take care of yourself. If you weren't with me, no other guy would take pity! You'd never have a family, I wouldn't have my money, so the way I see it, it's a trade off!"_

"_What if I leave?" She spat, trying to wiggle out of his grasps that she was sure was imprinting bruises into her small arms._

"_I'll take you for everything you own. But if you stay, I'll divorce you, you can have a small share, enough to live on your own, and you have to relinquish rights to the children. That was the plan all along. You didn't think I'd actually want to be with you?" _

When they had first met, she truly thought that she believed in soulmates, that he loved her and would protect her. That no matter the ups and downs of infertility, he'd want to build a life with her one way or another, that family wasn't just blood, and they could have a life. She believed it until she had found the agreement Jarred had signed with his family's lawyers that had been sitting in their spare room office drawer. The emails she had dug into when she lost trust in his when he didn't come home.

Truly horrifying paragraphs about leaving her and her selfish ways and how she let him down. About how unhappy he was with her and that his marriage was just a sham. An email about how he couldn't find a drink strong enough to get her high pitched, squeal of a voice out of his head and her singing voice was worse. It dawned on her that he didn't want her, he wanted money.

And then one final note pinned to his desktop that stopped her heart:

_Get the children, gain money, kill the girl._

But he had to make it look like an accident since his parents required a wife of him, right?

"Chloe? Your phone."

Jarred's suddenly cheerful voice, the fake one he always used when someone would catch him scolding Chloe, or when he had meetings, caught her off guard. He motioned to her phone, buzzing lightly in her hand.

"Hello." She sputtered, struggling to sound normal.

"_Mr. and Mrs. Berlain?" _

This was it; All the gambling they had done over their three years of marriage, all the jumping into the deep end, all the heartache, this was it. And Chloe would have been lying if she hadn't believed this was her out, and that was the horrible reason she hoped it would turn out the way she hoped. But she also had bigger plans.

"_As you know, we didn't think that all the surgeries and biopsies of Chloe's ovaries were necessary given her diagnosis as a teen. But since you insisted that this be your option and that we exhaust every approach so that you'd know if there was hope, we have your results after extensive research." _

"Well?" Jarred rudely jumped in.

"_It's likely that because of the scar tissue in your uterus that you'll never carry a child to term, but your ovaries are mature and we find nothing genetically deficient about them."_

"What the heck does the mean…" Jarred began again.

"_Surrogacy is your best bet. As I see it, it's your only option if you truly want biological children." _

"Shoot." Chloe accidentally responded out loud.

This was it, she was trapped. A biological child was a tie to her abusive husband and she couldn't just relinquish him or her. Surely not! She could stall the adoptions, make the mother not want them, play all the cards to get rejected. She could try to buy more time to think of a plan. One where she could have the child she wanted, the one without him where they could have a better life. One where they weren't just getting a kid for money. She didn't want that for the kid, even if it was her out.

She didn't want to have to take the kid and run. So she pretended to be sad about it, when really she hated bearing the thoughts of being stuck with him another day. She was tired of pretending, protecting, protecting a child from him, protecting his ego, protecting herself.

She wanted children, at the beginning, she thought she wanted them with him. And though she was sad about not having them, she had to keep pushing, reminding herself that this was not a good situation, and she was only stalling to please him. To keep herself safe until she could escape. She had to put on a sad act, (which wasn't hard because she eventually wanted kids and it was hard to keep pushing the opportunities away), and she braved a face that had him fooled.

"We'll do it. I'll throw some money towards an ad in the paper and we'll find a surrogate for us."

Chloe hadn't even realized that he was talking to her and that the phone call had ended.

_Get the children, gain money, kill the girl._

It taunted her in her mind, forcing her to speak up for herself so that she could be a step closer to it all being over.

"Great." She said through her teeth, and with that, he left.


End file.
